My home town is very similar to the small town mentioned in my novel, a fictitious town called Seguin Sound. Yes, it was on Georgian Bay. Yes there was a CPR Rail trestle spanning across the river and our childhood. Yes, there was a Native reserve nearby.

Parry Sound CPR rail bridge view from the town dock

I was fortunate that on the one clear day for that long weekend that an old flame took me for a boat tour around the Wasauksing First Nation Reserve (what we always referred to as Parry Island) and a little farther out into blue and green paradise. It was good fresh air therapy.

Island Queen sighting from a cottage

It was a good thing we got out on that beautiful day because the scheduled Island Queen boat cruise the following one was cancelled due to fog.

Waiting for the Island Queen boat cruise

Growing up in that small town, I had schoolmates from the Wasauksing First Nation and those who bused in from other reserves. During my quiet high school years, I chummed with some of the girls during lunch time. I even shared crushes with some of the boys.

I am trying to use the Wasauksing reference more, in respect for the Ojibway, the Indigenous people who lived across the water from my old home town. As I mature and evolve in my adopted home town of Ottawa, I strive to learn more about the Algonquin people who inhabited the area and those who still do.